Torah Ideas for Rethinking our Relationship to Time In Our Present Crisis

The first parashah that accompanies this novel period of social distancing has lessons to teach us in how to best use the time we now have returned to us.

The parashah begins with the command that a (naturally antimicrobial) copper-brass laver of water is placed in the central courtyard of the tabernacle and that the Levites must wash their hands between every interaction of service lest they die. Synagogues today incorporate the adapted features of the Tabernacle with the exceptions of the incense and the laver. We have restored the laver this week with the large bottles of Purell. How apropros.

Ki Tissa continues with the completely out-of-order story of the Golden Calf.  Why doesn't this pivotal story about idolatry -- idolatry is when we put our money, time, and spiritual resources into the wrong areas-- occur way back when it actually happened, before the revelation at Mount Sinai?

Because we needed what has happened since, all the activities of building the portable sanctuary, the practices of renewal during Shabbat, the visions of divine Service of the Levites... to give us a context for understanding what the opposite of idolatry is.

And these activities give us ideas for how to use this time of crisis for a renewal of our relationship to time.